5 comments:

Anonymous
said...

I view military service as a wonderful avenue for the Malays especially to use as a launching pad to many opportunities. The government should consciously use it to churn out good and reliable managers, entrepreneurs, technocrats etc.

During our days, the same opportunities were available but not many really saw the openings or really interested in self-improvement perhaps due to many other distractions. There were bad military cultures left by the British that we inherited. Drinking liquor, unfettered entertainment, gambling were the way of life for many.

Now, in peace time, the philosophy of soldiering ought to be revamped. We should be adopting the "thinking army" philosophy like the ones adopted by US, Singapore and Israel. I don't think absolute & blind loyalty will work any longer.Soldiers no matter what rank they hold must be first be convinced and persuaded as to the goal and direction set in order to them to be expected to give their heart and soul. We should also remove all uncertainties in respect of their post-military future. All military in-service skills must be given a certification from certificate level up to PhD with government recognition. Post-military careers should be charted to each individuals so that no ex-servicemen are unemployed or to be allowed to drift and fall below the poverty line. All ex-servicemen must be groomed to be employable.

Can you imagine how rich and capable the Malay's work force would be for Malaysia if such philosophy is implemented consciously. It can be a DEB expressway. I still feel our race still need the "conscious" effort to mold them into what we want them to be. Of course by and large many are ready motivated enough now to strive for success. The hard facts is that the Malays still need guidance, opportunities, motivation and lots of assistance. The Armed forces services can be converted into a vocational, educational and motivational power-house to socially engineer the Malays for generations to come. Of course we do not wish to produce dogmatic or robotic Malays via the military service. That is why the "thinking army" philosophy is the way forward.

I'm already seeing some progress made to the Armed Forces services taking place right now. But what I am urging is for the government to use the military services to eradicate poverty among Malays, a scheme which I envisaged above. Military ex-servicemen future ought to be guaranteed to a certain extend. Otherwise bad hats will be creeping into the service in future and the country will certainly confront a major social problems and collateral damage will usually goes to the Malay race. If that happens, forever the Malays will be economically marginalised. What a sad thing!